GPRA Annual Performance Plan
Fiscal Year 2000

Introduction

This is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's second
Annual Performance Plan under the Government Performance and
Results Act (GPRA). The
preparation of two documents helped us clarify measures for
this fiscal year 2000 Annual Performance Plan: our fiscal year
1999 Annual Performance Plan and our fiscal year 2001 Budget
Request to Congress, where we fully integrated our GPRA
measures for 1999-2001 with our budget information and
request.

Since being sworn-in as Chairwoman of the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
on October 23, 1998, Ida L. Castro has implemented an
innovative agenda to increase the fairness, effectiveness, and
efficiency of all aspects of agency operations by developing a
Comprehensive Strategic Enforcement Model. The Model is
designed to efficiently and effectively carry out Commission
policy, as articulated in the National Enforcement Plan
(NEP)
ratified by the Commission in February 1996. The Model focuses
on expanding outreach, education, and technical assistance to a
broad range of stakeholders, seeking to prevent discrimination
in the first instance, and on pursuing fair and vigorous
enforcement against "bad actors" to ensure that EEOC is the
nation's premier civil rights enforcement agency.

The first application of the Model was the agency's
development and initial piloting of a Comprehensive Enforcement
Program (CEP) in the private-sector administrative and
litigation processes in fiscal year 1999. Under the CEP, all
resources are strategically linked to deliver fair, effective
and efficient service to the public.

With this ambitious agenda, the agency began to re-evaluate
its mission and goals in the Commission's current 6-year
Strategic Plan prepared under the Government Performance and
Results Act of 1993 (GPRA. The
Plan's mission statement did not clearly articulate our
intention to do all that we could to remove the vestiges of
employment discrimination at the workplace. In preparing our
fiscal year 2001 Budget Request and GPRA Annual Performance
Plan, we determined that the Plan's mission statement needed to
be rephrased. Since the Commission will implement its new
6-year Strategic Plan by fiscal year 2001, the fiscal year 2001
budget and planning cycle and this final version of our fiscal
year 2000 Annual Performance Plan presented timely
opportunities to restate the mission statement.

EEOC's new Mission Statement clearly and concisely conveys
to employers and employees alike that the Commission can not,
and will not, tolerate any form or level of employment
discrimination covered by laws implemented by the agency.
Although the statement expresses a noble and some would say
unattainable goal, the Commission believes, instead, that the
goal embodies the hopes and dreams of our society expressed in
our founding documents the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States of America, as well as the
statutes EEOC has been entrusted to enforce.

In addition to the restated Mission Statement, we
significantly enhanced the collaborative development of our
budget and planning documents during the fiscal year 2000
cycle. We continued this process further for our fiscal year
2001 Budget Request. These steps strengthen our commitment to
the principles of the Government Performance and Results Act by
aligning our budget/planning processes.

Also, this Annual Performance Plan, like our first Plan, was
developed by agency employees as an inherently governmental
function, and no non-federal assistance was involved in its
preparation. Finally, we do not request any waivers to
administrative requirements to provide managerial
flexibility.

Mission

Eradicate Employment Discrimination at the Workplace.

GENERAL GOAL I:

GOAL I.A.

Improve the effectiveness of the administrative process and
litigation program, including the use of mediation,in
private-sector enforcement activities utilizing charge
prioritization and National Enforcement Plan priorities.

Discussion

The Commission achieved many noteworthy accomplishments in
fiscal year 1999 supporting EEOC's story of success. The story,
however, is incomplete. Historically, the agency's greatest
challenge has been to effectively address a large number of
private-sector charges with limited resources. Our history has
shown that any hesitation in providing EEOC with the necessary
means to sustain its current level of effort (i.e., covering
all mandatory cost increases), not to mention additional
resources needed for improving service to the public, adversely
impact on the agency's noble mission for years to come. Because
EEOC's enacted fiscal year 2000 budget did not fully cover
basic expenses, the significant gains made in agency programs
and operations with fiscal year 1999 funding will
suffer,endangering the Commission's progress, particularly with
the Comprehensive Enforcement Program (CEP). The measures for
the private sector enforcement programs, as well as in all
other areas of this Annual Performance Plan, reflect the
funding reality for fiscal year 2000. We intend, however, to
continue making as much progress as we can in the
implementation of the CEP.

The Commission's successful implementation of our Priority
Charge Handling Procedures (PCHP) has resulted in the dramatic
reduction of our charge inventory and a significant improvement
in the management of our case load. In fiscal year 2000 the
Commission will continue its efforts to bring an integrated and
strategic approach to all of the Commission's work, and instill
a culture of customer service excellence throughout the entire
organization. The modest funding increase for fiscal year 2000,
however, affects our ability to continue the implementation of
these initiatives to the fullest extent anticipated when we
launched them in fiscal year 1999.

We will continue to implement this strategic enforcement
approach in both the private and federal sector programs in two
ways. First, the agency will continue implementing its
Comprehensive Enforcement Program (CEP) a program designed to
implement the agency's Comprehensive Strategic Enforcement
Model for integrated enforcement of the laws it enforces.
Second, we will build stronger relationships with partners in
the public and private sectors, including the business
community, private bar, State and local agencies, civil rights
groups, unions, and other employee groups through outreach
programs to educate, train, and provide technical assistance to
increase voluntary compliance with anti-discrimination
laws.

Under the CEP, all resources are strategically linked to
deliver fair, effective, and efficient service to the public,
in order to maximize implementation of the agency's National
Enforcement Plan (NEP), adopted by the
Commission in fiscal year 1996. As a result of these
initiatives, the agency made significant accomplishments in
fiscal year 1999 and is close to achieving many core
performance measures, demonstrated by the following:

Reductions continued in private sector charge inventories
and average charge processing times. In fiscal year 1999, the
inventory was reduced 30% to approximately 40,200 charges,
and the average time to resolve charges declined from 310
days to 265 days;

Increases in the number of charges successfully resolved
through mediation continued as EEOC's voluntary mediation
program steadily gained in acceptance and approval by
employers and employees. In fiscal year 1999, the agency more
than tripled the number of successful mediations to 4,833 and
has already achieved ahead of schedule a major goal to
mediate charges within 90 days on average charges are being
mediated within just 87 days on average;

Refinements to EEOC's private-sector enforcement
processes began to take hold under the Comprehensive
Enforcement Program (CEP) with its operational emphasis on
increased collaboration among outreach, investigatory, and
legal staff in all phases of the agency's work. CEP has
resulted in a greater value-added program for victims of
discrimination and employers alike by improving customer
service, increasing technical assistance, and investing
resources strategically to optimize use of all tools
available to the EEOC to accomplish its mission.
Consequently, more persons have benefitted and more dollars
have been obtained from EEOC's activities. For example,
resolutions showing a favorable outcome for the charging
party increased from 12.4% in fiscal year 1998 to nearly 17%
in fiscal year 1999 and dollar benefits from mediation,
settlements of all kinds, and litigation reached an all-time
high of $307 million;

Emphasis on providing technical assistance to
stakeholders most in need of EEOC's services achieved better
voluntary compliance with employment discrimination laws. In
fiscal year 1999, EEOC provided 46,500 private-sector
employer representatives with technical assistance. The
agency's Small Business Initiative focused on small to
mid-sized businesses which employ most workers and often lack
the professional human resources capabilities to implement
fair and effective employment policies and practices. EEOC's
efforts are forging a stronger working relationship with this
important and growing sector of the employment community
bringing in stakeholders and expanding the dialogue critical
to EEOC's goal of equal employment opportunity for all at the
workplace;

With the additional resources in fiscal year 1999, the
average waiting time for federal employee hearings
declinedfrom 20.8 months to 12.7 months. Early in fiscal year
2000, EEOC began implementation of the revised 29 C.F.R. 1614
regulations, which will result in further improvements to
federal sector program equal employment opportunity case
processing activities; and,

Enhancements to EEOC's technological capabilities in
fiscal year 1999 meant that all 50 field offices will be
connected to headquarters and each other electronically so
that staff will finally be able to communicate and share
information more effectively by the end of fiscal year
2000.

Our Goal I.A. measures will help us concentrate our efforts
on critical areas of the enforcement process. The Commission
believes that achieving these measures will result in more
effective enforcement of employment discrimination laws.

We will devote resources to improve our processes so that
charging parties and employers receive better and more timely
resolution of charges. Measures #4 and #5 are designed to help
achieve this important purpose.

Several measures (measures #1 and #3) are aimed at
eliminating discrimination that involves multiple aggrieved
parties or discriminatory policies in the work place. These
types of charges and cases can have a broad impact in the
private- sector and a successful outcome can improve the
climate for equal employment opportunity. These measures enable
the Commission to carefully weigh all of its priorities and
ensure in its work load a proper mix of complex or
issue-oriented private- sector charges and litigation that
require more resources.

The Commission will continue its mediation program in fiscal
year 2000, clearly demonstrating our continuing commitment to
this approach (Measure #2). We believe that mediation can
assist in the resolution of appropriate charges to the benefit
of both charging parties and employers, while fulfilling the
agency's mission to promote equal opportunity in
employment.

GOAL I.B.

Discussion

On August 10, 1999, Chairwoman Castro announced initiatives
to transform EEOC's federal sector by extending Comprehensive
Enforcement Program (CEP) concepts to this program. The CEP
provides a focus for implementing the revised federal sector
regulation, which was effective on November 9, 1999. In
contrast to the private sector, where EEOC conducts all
activities from prevention through enforcement, in the federal
sector an individual files a charge with his/her own agency and
can request a hearing at EEOC after 180 days. They can also
file an appeal with EEOC.

The federal sector CEP maximizes resources to eliminate
discrimination in the federal government by linking all of
EEOC's responsibilities outreach, complaint adjudication, on-
site reviews, training, technical assistance and data
collection. In addition to CEP implementation in EEOC,
improvements in the comprehensiveness and quality of data
submitted by federal agencies, the implementation of regulatory
changes requiring agencies to offer Alternative Dispute
Resolution ( ADR), and other
changes will further enhance the quality of the federal sector
program.

A General Accounting Office report (GAO/GGD-98- 167BR)
recognized EEOC's expanding federal sector workload and the
fact that it will continue to grow in the future if nothing is
done to stem it. In our fiscal year 2000 Budget Request, the
Commission presented the critical issue of rapid increases in
complaints in the Commission's federal sector hearings and
appeals workloads, despite extraordinary productivity by its
attorneys since 1994. While EEOC has focused extensively on
addressing the workload problems in the federal sector program,
including revising regulation 29 C.F.R. 1614, we will be unable
to effectuate improvements to meet the 180-day requirement in
the regulation without the necessary funding. The funding was
an important factor for bring case-processing results in the
federal sector program to a level comparable to the results we
expect to achieve in the private sector program by the end of
fiscal year 2001.

To foster federal agency involvement in designing
improvements to their processes, EEOC is co-sponsoring a task
force with Vice President Gore's National Partnership for
Reinventing Government (NPR), which was initiated in fiscal
year 1999 and will complete its work in fiscal year 2000. The
task force has been identifying best practices, promoting
pilots to utilize information technology to track progress
through the system, and other innovative methods to improve the
federal sector processes.

The CEP provides the framework for utilizing the EEOC/NPR
interagency task force to accelerate changes under the new
regulations. EEOC will work with agencies choosing to initiate
pilot projects to improve their EEO programs, and task force
teams will address the following:

The Dispute Prevention Strategies Team will
recommend approaches to reduce or eliminate factors leading
to disputes that result in EEO complaints. Dispute Prevention
will also assist employees and agency officials in creating a
better work environment for focusing energies on
accomplishing agency objectives.

The Data Collection Team will improve the
accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, and efficiency of data
collected from agencies on the EEO process. This data
provides critical information for the EEOC, agencies, and the
public to assess results achieved in the federal EEO process.
The team was formed as part of the task force to address the
issue of the validity and verification of data sent to the
EEOC by federal agencies, which was raised by GAO in a
published report (GAO/GGD-99-75).

The Best Practices Team will identify methods,
techniques, procedures, and policies contributing to an
improved EEO climate and complaint process. This information
can help jump-start agencies to quickly improve parts of
their EEO process with the confidence that similar approaches
worked elsewhere.

The Early Dispute Resolution Team will identify
and recommend early intervention techniques, in addition to
mediation, that can resolve disputes. These efforts can yield
significant benefits for the agency as a whole and for
managers and employees involved in disputes with the
potential to increase productivity, save resources, and
improve morale.

CEP implementation will transform the federal sector EEO
program, through implementation of the new regulations, the
joint federal task force, and a revitalized EEOC federal sector
program that strategically utilizes headquarters and field
resources.

Several measures for this Goal commit the agency to reduce
the time it takes to process hearings and appeals (measures #2,
#3, and #4). Other measures will help to develop better future
measures for evaluating agency results in this program under
the revised federal sector regulations (measure #1), and to
review federal agency compliance with equal employment
opportunity principles by conducting more on-site reviews
(measure #6).

In particular, measure #1 is important to assess the
implementation and impact of the revised regulations. The
revised regulations cover the processing of federal sector EEO
complaints and present unique challenges for the Commission and
other federal agencies during their implementation in fiscal
year 2000. In anticipation of this challenge, the Commission
developed eight measures in fiscal year 1999 to lay the
groundwork for designing future, results-based measures under
GPRA.

The Commission will use the 8 measures to assess critical
areas of the federal EEO process by guiding the collection and
analyses of information in fiscal year 2000 to determine the
effectiveness of the revised regulations after their
implementation. These measures are:

Overall Effectiveness Measure: compare the federal
agency's acceptance rate of EEOC's Administrative Judges
decisions under the former version and the revised 29 C.F.R.
1614 regulations.

Hearings Measure: the average processing time of case
closures involving decisions issued without a formal hearing
compared to the overall average processing time of all
hearings case closures.

Appeals Measure: the percentage of final federal agency
orders not fully implementing an EEOC decision after
implementation of the revised 29 C.F.R. 1614 regulations
compared to rejections/modifications of decisions under the
former version of the regulations.

ADR Measures:

the rate of pre-complaint ADR resolutions compared to
ADR resolutions after a formal complaint is filed;
and

the degree to which those federal agencies, not
having an ADR program before the effective date of the
revised 1614 regulations, subsequently implement
one.

Remedies and Relief Measure: the percentage of final
federal agency orders which do not fully implement a decision
of an EEOC Administrative Judge awarding remedies, including
attorney's fees.

Consolidation of Complaints Measure: the percentage of
cases consolidated in the hearings inventory.

Elimination of Appeal of Partial Dismissal Measure: the
reduction of appeals dismissed due to procedural
defects.

We believe that the implementation of Alternative Dispute
Resolution ( ADR)procedures will
help resolve federal employee concerns earlier and reduce the
number of complaints proceeding further in the process, as in
the private-sector. This result will help both individual
federal agencies and the Commission free resources for other
endeavors. Many federal agencies already have implemented or
have plans to implement ADR programs in the EEO process.
Therefore, our final measure for this Goal will assist some of
the smaller agencies, that do not currently have an ADR
program, implement one so that they can benefit from this
approach (measure #5)..

MEASURES - GOAL I.B.

Implement measures and indicators identified or
developed in fiscal year 1999 to assess the effectiveness of
revisions made to the Federal-Sector EEO Process during
fiscal year 1999.

By the end of fiscal year 2000, reduce by 5% the
number of Hearings cases over 180 days old as of the
beginning of the fiscal year.

Twenty percent (20%) of total closures are from the
oldest group of appeals cases in EEOC's inventory.

Ten percent (10%) of appeals received during the
fiscal year will be resolved within 180 days.

GOAL I.C.

Work with State and local Fair Employment Practices Agencies
and Tribal Employment Rights Organizations.

Discussion

The Commission has diligently worked over the years with our
Fair Employment Practices Agency (FEPA) and Tribal Employment
Rights Organization (TERO) partners to address employment
discrimination. We are committed to continuing this
relationship. Key measures for fiscal year 2000 are to provide
training on emerging issues in charge processing for FEPA
officials at a National Training Conference; to distribute
training materials covering at least 2 employment
discrimination subjects to each FEPA with an EEOC charge
resolution contract; and to continue technical assistance for
FEPAs and TEROs (measure #1). Also, the agency will continue
its important contractual arrangements with our FEPA partners
to resolve over 53,000 dual-filed charges (measure #2)..

MEASURES - GOAL I.C.

Provide training for FEPAs and Tribal Employment
Rights Organizations (TEROs), and distribute training
materials covering at least 2 employment discrimination
subjects to each FEPA with which EEOC has a charge resolution
contract.

Contract with FEPA partners to resolve approximately
53,000 dual-filed charges.

GENERAL GOAL II:

GOAL II.A.

Encourage and facilitate voluntary compliance with equal
employment opportunity laws in the private and federal
sectors.

Discussion

Throughout its history, the Commission has strongly promoted
voluntary compliance by employers with federal equal employment
opportunity laws to foster the prevention of discrimination
before it occurs. We provide education and technical assistance
to employers and the many other constituencies interested in or
affected by our interpretations of law and how we do our work
to encourage voluntary compliance.

We have also benefitted, however, from the ongoing dialogue
we have had with these constituencies about our policies and
procedures. This dialogue helps us develop better approaches to
prompt voluntary compliance. In fiscal year 1999, we conducted
a substantial number of these consultations with employers and
groups, far exceeding our goal in this area. We will continue
to seek input from these groups at the level achieved in fiscal
year 1999 (measure #1).

As part of our comprehensive outreach plan, our measures
also commit us to assist these groups, fostering voluntary
compliance with the equal employment opportunity laws. Again,
we achieved extremely high levels of education and technical
assistance in fiscal year 1999, including our Revolving Fund
efforts. For fiscal year 2000, our measures reflect our
commitment to maintain those high levels supporting voluntary
compliance (measures #2 and #3). In addition, we will implement
the outreach plan developed in fiscal year 1999, proactively
distributing our education and technical assistance materials
to private-sector employers, particularly small employers, and
to federal-sector employers (measure #4).

MEASURES - GOAL II.A.

Conduct at least 1,200 consultations with employer
stakeholders on operational and legal issues; maintaining the
high level of consultations held in fiscal year
1999.

Conduct at least 46,500 technical assistance efforts,
other than Revolving Fund activities, for private-sector and
federal-sector employers; maintaining the high level of
technical assistance provided in fiscal year 1999.

Implement, as part of the agency's comprehensive
outreach efforts, the plan developed in fiscal year 1999 to
provide education and technical assistance and to proactively
distribute EEOC's education and information materials to the
public, including small private-sector employers, and to
federal-sector employers.

GOAL II.B.

Discussion

In addition to our dialogue with the employer community, the
Commission has also benefitted from a dialogue with employee
constituencies about our policies and procedures. We will
continue to seek a wide range of viewpoints and input from the
employee community at the same high level of consultations
achieved in fiscal year 1999 (measure #1). In addition, the
Commission provides education and technical assistance to
potential charging parties in the private sector and
complainants in the federal sector to help them understand our
processes and know their rights and responsibilities under the
employment laws we enforce. As part of the comprehensive
outreach plan developed in fiscal year 1999, under this Goal we
will proactively distribute our education and information
materials to employee stakeholders to reach more individuals
about their rights under employment discrimination law (measure
#2)..

MEASURES - GOAL II.B.

Conduct at least 1,200 consultations with employee
stakeholders on operational and legal issues; maintaining the
high level of consultations held in fiscal year
1999.

Implement, as part of the agency's comprehensive
outreach efforts, the plan developed in fiscal year 1999 to
inform under served constituencies of their rights and to
proactively distribute EEOC's education and information
materials to employee stakeholders.

General Supporting Objective
Enhance the Effectiveness of our Employees to Achieve our
Mission and General Goals

OBJECTIVE III.A.

Discussion

Our commitment to eradicate discrimination at the workplace
can only be fulfilled if we invest in our employees. Funding
restrictions in fiscal year 2000 require us to scale back our
training initiatives to include only those skills essential for
continuing the implementation of the CEP. Measure #1 commits us
to provide training to EEOC employees, within our limited
resources in fiscal year 2000, with critical skills relevant to
implementing the Comprehensive Enforcement Program, so that
they can improve their capabilities and give better service to
the public.

OBJECTIVE III.B.

Discussion

We must improve the ability of our employees to provide
excellent customer service to the public by reducing
unnecessary internal processes and procedures. Although we did
not meet our target for this measure in fiscal year 1999, we
made significant preparations. This fiscal year, we intend to
achieve not only the target number established for fiscal year
1999, but also the additional target number for the fiscal year
2000 measure (measure #1). Also, the Commission knows it must
set an example for the larger federal community with a
commitment to the efficient resolution of our internal EEO
complaints, including the increased use of ADR by voluntary
mediation. Measure #2 provides the impetus to begin to set that
example by reducing the average number of days to process our
internal EEO complaints. Both measures here will help us gauge
our success in these areas.

Streamlining Delivery of Services

MEASURES - OBJECTIVE III.B.

Continue to review internal directives and
streamline, update, or eliminate 10% of those in effect as of
September 30, 1998, in order to improve internal processes
and free resources for front-line enforcement
activities.

Reduce by 15% from fiscal year 1999 the average
number of days to process internal EEO complaints, and use
innovative approaches, such as Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR) for voluntary
mediation.

OBJECTIVE III.C.

Attain and maintain technological competency.

Discussion

The information age requires all federal agencies to have a
sound technological infrastructure and for staff to be
technologically competent. This will allow the agency to
sustain its programs and business operations; support its
mission, goals and objectives; and have employees use the most
modern and efficient tools to do their jobs and serve the
public. The Commission is committed to providing the best
technology it can within its resources, especially with the
funding limitations imposed in fiscal year 2000. Measures #1
through #3 are aimed at fulfilling that promise.

Improving Technological Capabilities

MEASURES - OBJECTIVE III.C.

Provide wide area network connectivity and Internet
access throughout the agency.

Continue to develop the Integrated Mission System
(IMS), which allows consolidation of EEOC's major
mission-related information systems into a single, shared
database that will improve functionality, expand employee
access, and allow for future integration with administrative
systems.

Initiate the development of a standardized federal
EEO Complaint Collection and Reporting System to improve the
collection of data from federal agencies and provide more
efficient reporting of federal EEO complaints.

Verification and Validation

Accurate and reliable data is critical to planning and
resource allocation at the Commission. The three major front-
line program areas administrative enforcement, litigation, and
federal sector programs require charge, case and complaint
processing data, respectively, to be able to ascertain how well
management decisions and resources applied to these programs
are having their intended impact.

The agency, throughout fiscal year 1999, began to assess its
data collection approaches and systems and their capability to
demonstrate performance results for the measures contained in,
or proposed for, its Performance Plans. In addition, we began
to integrate our budget and planning processes and documents.
During this endeavor, the agency considered future data
collection approaches and systems to more effectively meld
these processes.

As we developed this fiscal year 2000 Annual Performance
Plan, the agency greatly benefitted from the dialogue among
Commission offices. Future GPRA Plans, and the measures
developed, will use better data collection approaches and
systems. We will continue to rely heavily on the Commission's
core data systems already in place throughout the agency;
however, we plan to upgrade many of them, consolidate separate
systems, and use advanced technology to obtain data more
effectively. All of these approaches will help us make more
informed management decisions.

In recent years the Commission has initiated projects to
improve the data available to managers to evaluate program
areas and to more easily verify their accuracy and
reliability:

Technological enhancements have already added an
important capacity to analyze program data and evaluate the
effects of changes made to improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of the programs. With the speed and ability to
cross tabulate data, inaccurate or inconsistent data has been
easier to detect and correct.

Under its 5-year technology plan, the Commission will be
developing and implementing new systems to collect and
analyze data in administrative enforcement, litigation and
federal sector programs and also in key support operations:

The Integrated Mission System (IMS) will combine data
sources for the administrative enforcement and litigation
programs to enhance program data collection and the
ability to verify and validate information used to make
critical management decisions. This system will reinforce
and support the Comprehensive Enforcement Program
concepts in the private sector programs. Several core
modules of the IMS are currently under development and,
in fiscal year 2001, EEOC will pilot these modules in
field offices. In conjunction with the agency's Local
Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Network (WAN)
nationwide communications integration, the agency will be
able to share data among offices to enhance enforcement
and provide better customer service.

A new federal sector data collection and reporting
system will be developed to improve service to federal
employees and agencies. The computerized system will be a
key component to support the implementation of the
federal sector CEP and the important changes to the
federal sector EEO process under the new regulations, the
interagency Task Force, and the EEOC's internal
improvements to the program.

A new Comprehensive Human Resources Information
System (CHRIS) will also provide critical personnel
information on a timely basis to provide vital
information to make management decisions on resource
allocation for program performance and to enhance
services to our own employees. In addition, the
Commission will be able to obtain important information
to review program and organizational costs at the same
time that it reviews program performance information. All
of this data will provide invaluable analytical
information to review key cost inputs in conjunction with
program results.

GPRA performance measures will benefit from the
information collected on the various programs and the
internal support programs. It will be easier to obtain
relevant data and verify its accuracy to assess the results
achieved for GPRA performance measures. In addition, better
performance measures can be developed to analyze program
performance and achievement levels to determine how well
resources are being utilized towards attainment of the
Commission's mission.

The fiscal year 1999 Annual Performance Plan has helped us
develop approaches to verify and validate information, and our
discussions about critical data collection and verification
procedures have already helped focus our dialogue about
measures. The agency will continue to refine these approaches
during fiscal year 2000. and we anticipate that our collection
and verification processes in future years will improve
significantly.

The Commission is exploring different data needs in order to
develop more outcome-type measures and assess levels of
accomplishment. The most difficult problem is to establish
causal relationships for particular outcomes. We need to
consider which data are appropriate, how much value they will
add towards our ability to evaluate our achievements, what
level of resources are needed to establish a causal
relationship, and how the data will be verified. Some of the
efforts we took in fiscal year 1999 with some of our measures
will help us build a foundation for developing future
outcome-oriented measures.

Program Activity and the Budget

The fiscal year 2000 appropriation was $281,000,000, after a
$1 million recission. This represented only a $2 million
increase over the $289 million fiscal year 1999 appropriation
and does not cover all of the adjustments to base required for
fiscal year 2000. Consequently, the performance measures
originally proposed were revised to reflect the available
funding.

The EEOC has two Program & Finance (P&F) schedules.
The schedules cover salaries and expenses, and a small
"enterprise fund," known as the "Revolving Fund," which
enhances the agency's education and outreach efforts.

The yearly appropriation for the major P&F schedule
covers salaries and expenses in three program activity areas:
(1) Executive Direction and Program Support,(2)
Enforcement, and (3) State and Local. The salaries and
expenses are linked to agency activities within each identified
program activity area.

The agency's fiscal year 2000 appropriation for both the
Executive Direction and Program Support and Enforcement program
areas is $252,000,000. With this restricted level of resources
available to the EEOC for fiscal year 2000 and the effect of
this financial constraint on the Commission's ability to
sustain its substantial programmatic achievements from fiscal
year 1999, we will focus our efforts on continuing to
incrementally implement our initiatives, particularly the
Comprehensive Enforcement Program beyond the pilot stage, and
maintaining gains achieved in fiscal year 1999.

The fiscal year 2000 budget for the third program activity
area, State and Local, is $29,000,000. This represents level
funding and will allow EEOC to support achievement of the
measures for this program activity area.

The second P&F schedule addresses an enterprise fund,
which was established under the EEOC Educational, Technical
Assistance, and Training Revolving Fund Act of 1992. This
Revolving Fund provides money to enhance the Commission's
education and outreach efforts. Achievement of the Goals in
this Annual Performance Plan for education and outreach is
predicated upon this dual funding approach.

An important part of our program and budget activities is
the continued integration of our budget and planning processes,
which will help us enhance managerial decision-making. We began
these efforts in fiscal year 1999, and have continued them with
fiscal year 2000. This effort includes the identification of
data needed to more accurately assess the resources necessary
to perform the Commission's different activities. Currently,
our systems may not be capable of collecting specific data or
it may take a disproportionate amount of resources to collect
the data. We will use other approaches to allocate expenditures
among our activities to improve planning and budget decisions,
while we continue to develop better data and data collection
systems.

Program Evaluation

Our Strategic Plan describes many strategic planning
activities the agency conducted in the past. It has continued
these efforts since Chairwoman Ida L. Castro arrived at the
Commission in the fall of 1998. The Chairwoman and her fellow
Commissioners Commissioner Paul M. Igasaki, Commissioner Paul
Steven Miller and Commissioner Reginald E. Jones have voted on
policy and process changes covering the administrative,
litigation, and federal sector responsibilities of the agency.
We continue to build on a substantial record of achievements to
make the Commission more effective and efficient. Some examples
of our accomplishments during fiscal year 1999:

Many private-sector administrative charge processing
indicators showed substantial gains from the previous year:
average time to process charges decreased to 265 days, a 15%
reduction; pending inventory of charges in field offices
dropped to 40,225, a 30% reduction; percentage of cause
findings increased from 4.6% to 6.6% of the total charges
resolved; resolutions showing a favorable outcome for the
charging party increased to 16.5% of all charge resolutions,
a 33% increase; monetary benefits for victims of
discrimination from all sources including administrative
charge resolutions, mediation and litigation increased
dramatically to $307.4 million, an 18% increase.

The agency's mediation program had substantial success:
the number of charges mediated more than doubled 7,430
mediations were conducted resulting in 4,833 successful
resolutions; cases were mediated in an average of 90 days;
and benefits increased almost 3-1/2 times to $58.6
million.

EEOC filed 439 substantive lawsuits covering all of the
Commission's statutes 125, or 28.5%, involved multiple
aggrieved parties or discriminatory policies. It resolved 294
substantive lawsuits, resulting in almost $96.9 million for
victims of discrimination; filed 26 legal actions involving
subpoena enforcement and applications for temporary relief,
and resolved 23 such legal actions; and filed a total of 154
appellate briefs, including 67 where the Commission was a
party and 87 where the Commission participated as an amicus
curiae;

In the federal sector hearings program, the hearings
inven tory dropped to 12.7 months, a 37% reduction; hearings
resolutions increased by almost 16% to12,056; Admin istrative
Judges issued over 22% more hearings decisions addressing the
merits of a claim; and hearings settlements increased almost
14.5% to 3,966.

In the federal-sector appeals program, inventory was
reduced to 11,548 cases; a one month reduction to 17 months;
benefits to complainants reported as a result of compliance
monitoring of appellate decisions stood at $9.8 million, a
72% increase; and appeals attorneys resolved over 8,000
appeals, over an 8% increase, and issued over 200 findings of
discrimination with almost $10 million in benefits to over
250 individuals.

A Comprehensive Enforcement Program (CEP) was designed
for the federal sector program, similar to the CEP first
initiated in the private sector enforcement program. It will
link hearings, appeals, technical assistance, education,
oversight and data collection and analysis into a coherent
strategy to ensure the efficient and effective utilization of
EEOC's resources in eradicating discrimination at the federal
workplace.

The agency held 123 individualized on-site training
sessions in the federal sector. Developed, piloted, and
delivered in 98 sessions a three-hour program covering a
general overview of EEO to over 4,300 employees of the Healt
h Care Financing Administration(HCFA). In addition to HCFA,
training was provided to other federal agencies.

EEOC began to design and develop two major training
programs for implementation in the federal sector in fiscal
year 2000 through the Revolving Fund. One course addresses
the federal sector complaint process and procedures under the
new federal sector regulations, and the second provides
in-depth training on effective EEO counseling and resolution
techniques. Additionally, two training programs are being
developed for delivery in fiscal year 2000 to assist managers
and employees in identifying and preventing harassment in the
workplace, including sexual, racial and ethnic harassment by
supervisors and co- workers.

The Commission, as a co-sponsor with the Vice President
Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government,
initiated a federal interagency task force, which will
operate throughout fiscal year 2000 to foster innovations
designed to help agencies improve the EEO proce ss,
supporting effective implementation and administration of the
revised federal sector regulations.

The agency put on its web site its highly regarded
monthly periodical containing important federal appellate
decis ions, The Digest of EEO Law, to enhance distribution to
interested parties, and mailed the Digest to appro ximately
3,200 individuals and organizations.

The agency held 2,550 educational, training and outre ach
events reaching 207,000 persons, including 1,334 oral
presentations, 381 training sessions, 166 meetings to obtain
stakeholder input, and 55 expanded presence activities that
provided individual counseling and assistance to under served
constituents. These four major types of educational events
reached more than 110,500 persons.

EEOC provided services to small employers under the
agency's Small Business Initiative, such as: customer speci
fic on-site training on complex aspects of the Ameri cans
with Disabilities Act, as well as on race discrimination,
sexual harassment, and other topics of interest; identified
special Small Business Liaisons in 41 field offices, and
placed their names and telephone numbers on EEOC's Internet
web site for easy access; contacted thousands of Chambers of
Commerce and other small business organizations to inform
them of the Commission's new Small Business Liaisons and
information, education and other available services; included
information for small businesses on the agency's Internet web
site; provided information at Technical Assistance Program
Seminars (TAPS) held by the EEOC's Revolving Fund; offered
speakers for many business association events; requested
input from small employers on specific training needs;
expanded educational programs for small businesses; and, held
237 events with small business audiences that more than
11,000 persons attended.

The agency conducted the most substantial training effort
in a decade to provide EEOC employees with unprecedented
opportunities to build their job skills. Training was
conducted for new investigators, in-house and contract
mediators, attorneys and other specialized staff. In
addition, management and supervisory training was offered, as
part of a two-year effort to train all supervisors and
managers, and leadership training was provided to SES
staff.

EEOC developed and began piloting desk-top analytic tools
designed to significantly enhance the agency's capability to
analyze charge files and EEO-1 survey data to determine
whether more in-depth investigation or litigation is
warranted and to focus outreach and technical assistance
efforts where they are most needed.

The Commission initiated a national quality enhancement
program to further improve the training and presentation
skills and techniques of EEOC staff engaged in Re volving
Fund training and technical assistance programs. The training
program will be completed in fiscal year 2000. Also, it
implemented a national computerized registration system for
the Revolving Fund to substantially improve customer service,
reduce overhead and promote operational efficiency.

The EEOC established a solid technology infrastructure
with major improvements to integrate technology into agency
operations: replaced over 3,300 pieces of computer equipment
and upgraded software to create a standardized environment,
increase staff efficiency, and support future integration
requirements; ensured Y2K compliance in all mission-critical
systems; completed installation of Local Area Networks (LANs)
in all but 2 of the agency's 50 offices nationwide; completed
Wide Area Network (WAN) communications among Headquarters and
the 25 district offices nationwide, including Internet access
from employee desktop computers, to facilitate research and
promote information exchange with stakeholders and customers;
continued to update antiquated information systems and
integrate them to enable the agency to conduct
cross-functional analyses; improved customer access to the
agency's Internet web site (http://www.eeoc.gov), which
received approximately 100,000 visitors per month, on
average, a 50% increase in web site use. EEOC has been
recognized in business and technology news media as a leading
federal agency in innovative web site design.

The agency prepared the groundwork for reducing time
spent on administrative tasks by reviewing internal
directives for opportunities to update, streamline, or
eliminate them and save staff time and resources; ultimately,
improving front-line operations and service to the American
people.

EEOC issued timely and accurate interpretive regulatory and
policy guidance in key areas as an important part of the
Commission's efforts to encourage and facilitate voluntary
compliance with federal employment discrimination laws,
including:

Federal Sector Regulations. EEOC issued new
regulations, which went into effect on November 9, 1999
(29 C.F.R. 1614). These regulations streamline procedures
governing the discrimination complaint process for
federal employees and applicants, as well as the agencies
that employ and hire them.

Harassment Guidance. EEOC issued a comprehensive
policy guidance explaining the circumstances under which
employers can be held liable for unlawful harassment by
supervisors.

ADEA Proposed Rule. EEOC requested public comment on
a proposed rule which would support the vigorous
enforcement of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act's
(ADEA) provisions on the use of waivers in layoffs and
reductions in force (RIFs).

ADA Guidance. EEOC released a comprehensive policy
guidance entitled Reasonable Accommodation and Undue
Hardship Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
which provides clear answers to the most frequently-asked
questions concerning what reasonable accommodations are,
when they must be provided, and when employers may refuse
to provide them.

Our Program Evaluation efforts support these substantial
achievements. We will continue to integrate the results of
Program Evaluations into the development of better, more
effective performance measures, as we gain more strategic
planning experience. Program Evaluations will help us determine
what programs worked and how well they worked. We will be able
to quantify results and adjust programmatic approaches with
more specific, accurate information on hand.

We intend to focus on several critical program areas in
fiscal year 2000:

Private Sector Mediation Program Evaluation Design To Be
Funded

We expect to survey participants in the Commission's
mediation program. Collection of this data is critical to
ascertain how well the program is being implemented and if
it is having its intended result. We expect to make
modifications to the program to improve the service the
program delivers, because of the input received from our
customers. Also, we expect that the information collected
will help the agency discern whether the types of charges
entering the mediation program are appropriate.

New Design for Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act
(FMFIA) Program To Be Completed

In fiscal year 2000, we expect to complete the design of
a new FMFIA process. The approach of the new program will
be to focus on critical areas of the Commission's work more
frequently than on other less critical areas. A schedule of
reviews and the types of reviews to conduct will be
determined in fiscal year 2000. Materials will be developed
for the areas selected for review and methodologies, such
as sampling, on-site team reviews or self-assessments, will
be developed and utilized, as appropriate, in the first
reviews of program areas.

Quality Peer Review Program Design Completed and Pilot
Program Implemented

A development team was selected and convened meetings in
headquarters with an outside contractor to design the
Quality Peer Review Program in the first half of fiscal
year 2000. The development team developed general guide
lines and parameters, along with standards and measures,
that will be used to assess the quality of various aspects
of the Commission's work. The proposed program design was
shared with District Directors and Regional Attorneys for
feedback and input. The feedback received from these key
agency senior officials were used to make adjustments to
the program. Final changes will be made and pilots will be
initiated in the second half of fiscal year 2000.

CONCLUSION

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission believes that
this second Annual Performance plan continues our efforts to
implement the Government Performance and Results Act. This Plan
defines those goals and measures for fiscal year 2000 that will
enhance our programs and their effectiveness.